Our vacation to my sisters'

We went on vacation to my sisters houses. We went to Heather's house first and had a birthday party for Krystal (her daughter) while we were there. The next day we went to Nancy's and spent a few days there. It was a lot of fun. I managed to drive the 6 1/2 hours to Heather's plus 2 to Nancy's without any problems. The kids were really good and all that driving wasn't too hard to do by myself. I was really surprised. I took tons of pictures, so I'll post some more later. Love you guys! Oh, and Jacob comes home tomorrow! Yeah!

We had a picnic by the river in Cherokee near Nancy's house, and the kids all got to go wading.

I caught Simeon licking a plate after lunch one day. He thought it was so much fun.

This has to be the best baby seat I've ever seen. That's what we'll be getting next time we have a baby!

Nathan and Sariah got along extremely well. Aunt Nancy wanted Sariah to stay since Nathan plays so quietly with her.

Had to put this one in. All my sisters thought it was the funniest thing that Lizzie is so chubby and her thighs are so chunky. They laughed about it all day long!

RE: Trayton's funny story

We can't comment on the story bar, so I figured I'd do it here. That story about Trayton is so funny Nettie! That's awesome that he's starting to come up with things like that on his own.

Ezra faces

I know I've been posting a lot lately, but hey I've been taking lots of pictures. Sariah can never keep a straight face for a picture, and when she does smile it's with a silly smile. She reminded me so much of Ezra today when we were taking pictures. Here's a slideshow of some of the pictures. We love you Ezra!

Sewing like crazy

I have been sewing like crazy lately. My neighbor showed me a neat way to make headbands, and the girls are loving them. They take about two minutes to make. The neatest part is that she came up with a way to have interchangeable ribbons or flowers on top. The girls are loving them, and I'm loving making them! I also made Joseph some new sheets this morning. I ran out of fabric for the pillow case, but had enough matching fabric that I could fudge it and make it work. He loves them. Can you tell? Fun stuff!

It's so hot!

So, what do you do when it's unbearably hot and the splash park cost's too much money, you don't want to go anyway without a husband to help chase the kids, and you can't take the kids being inside anymore?

Simple, you go redneck (according to my neighbor's husband) and make you own FREE splash park that is in your own backyard!. There was a huge mud pit underneath the play structure by the time we were done, but it was well worth it! I'm sure we'll be doing it again soon. In fact my neighbor left all the hoses connected just in case!

Sarah Ruth Tracy and Nettie Mae Casteel

When your mother and I were at My Mom's last Independence Day, I took these shots of two photos my Mom had. I thought you might like to have copies. The top one is Nettie Mae Casteel (My mom's mom's Mom) and the lower one is of My Mom's Mom (Sarah Ruth Tracy, the oldest one) and her brother and sisters.

I thought we were done with this!

So, for those of you that don't know, Rebekah use to be a major sleep walker. She had night terrors for a few years, which are different from nightmares (so much worse!), but that all stopped about the time we moved back to California from Texas in February of 2008. I'd forgotten how freaky it can get when she has the night terrors. Once instead of screaming and yelling she started laughing hysterically. At first it was really funny, but when it went on for ten minutes and I couldn't get her to wake up to stop, and she was laughing so hard she was crying it started to get creepy. (Hey, I was all alone while Jacob was having night flights!) So, back to the story...Last night she was sleep walking again! Ahhhh!!! I thought it was over! She went to the bathroom (which she does asleep) and then turned to me ( I was across the hall in the office). That's when I realized she was asleep. She has this weird look in her eyes when she's asleep. Anyway, she wanders to the living room and starts walking in circles. I couldn't get her to wake up and go back to her room. She finally ends up laying down on the couch and curls up. I picked her up off the couch to carry her to her bed and she starts laughing hysterically! Once again, I couldn't get her to wake up to get her to stop. I finally went and got the camera, but by the time I got back she had pretty much wound down. I showed her the video today and told her what she did yesterday in her sleep, and she thought it was the funniest thing. She never remembers what she does when she sleep walks, and I don't think she knew before today what that really meant. Anyway we had fun watching this and talking about all the funny things she has done while sleepwalking. Sorry you can't really see the video very well, but I didn't want to wake everyone else up by turning on the light. She was almost to the point of crying in the video while laughing. I wish I had thought to get the camera a few minutes earlier when she was laughing uncontrollably. See what fabulous things Jacob misses when he is gone at night!

Yeah, I just went into Rebekah's room because she was crying. By the time I got there she was up in bed and sleep walking! Do any of you guys have kids that sleep walk, or is it just Rebekah? So far none of the other kids are doing it. (Thankfully!) I'm really hoping the night terrors don't start up again!